Spirit Riders: Riding To Mend The Sacred Hoop.

Spirit Riders is an international award wining documentary film about the birth of an American Indian peace movement, begun by the Lakota Nation and its growth over the subsequent years.
This version of Spirit Riders is the short version. This short cut of Spirit Riders was the companion documentary film to HBO’s feature film Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. It was a great honor to be chosen as the companion documentary and featured on HBO.com but we did not receive a penny from HBO for our efforts. If you have viewed our latest film Native Horse on PBS you will notice that we used some of the footage from Spirit Riders in Native Horse. I spend five years documenting the Rides To Wounded Knee and other related Spiritual Rides to Sacred Sites. The library of footage, interviews and time period 1998-2003 captured an important part of Lakota & other tribes contemporary history.
Although Spirit Riders did receive several international award at film festivals were were never able to raise the funding to pay off the Original Sound track (Mostly Native musicians). We hope to receive final finishing funding for Spirit Riders and release the full version. For now enjoy the short of Spirit Riders.
From the stunning images of wilderness landscapes to the dramatic footage of peace and unity horseback rides, this film is a visual delight.  With narration by Peter Coyote, interviews with ride-participant Viggo Mortensen and an eclectic soundtrack featuring American Indian Grammy winner Bill Miller, Robert Mirabal, Keith Secola, Rick Allen, Lauren Monroe. Spirit Riders not only entertains, but leads the audience on a profound journey inside a culture and a movement offering ancient traditional visions of peace to a troubled modern world.
Many respected members of the Lakota community, including descendent’s of Sitting Bull and Black Elk are featured in the film, both as participants in the rides and as social/cultural commentators. Charlotte Black Elk, Alex Whiteplume, Birgil Killstraight, Ron His Horse Is Thunder, Russell Means and Mel Lonehill all make appearances in the film.
The film introduces us to the Lakota Indian tradition of ceremonial horseback rides and how in the last twenty years these rides have become a source of inspiration for the Lakota people and a medium for a worldwide message of peace.
As I write this the Lakota riders are making their way to Wounded Knee once again through harsh winter conditions to honor their relatives who were brutally massacred on December 29th, 1890! In our new Film Native Horse (available on PBS) we touch on some of this story.
We will be announcing further releases of our Award Winning Documentary films on Rumble in the days ahead. This is wonderful educational aesthetic programing for the entire family over the holidays.
Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season.
James Anaquad Kleinert - Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Writer.
https://www.jamesanaquadkleinert.com/films